255 
QUASSIA SIMARUBA. 
Simaruha Quassia, Mountain or Bitter Damson.''^ 
Class DECANDRiA.f— Or</er Monogynia. 
Nat, Ord, Gruinales, Linn. Magnolia, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx five-leaved. Petals five. Nectary five- 
leaved. Drupes five, distant, bivalve, inserted into a fleshy 
receptacle. 
Spec. Char. Flowers monoecious. Leaves abruptly pinnate. 
Leaflets alternately petiolate. Petioles smooth. Flowers in 
panicles. 
The bark of this tree v?as first sent to France from Guiana, in 
1718, as a remedy of great eflicacy in dysentery, and an epidemic 
flux prevailing very generally in Paris, and other parts of France, a 
very few years after, it was employed with great success in arresting 
the progress of the disease, and from this circumstance its medicinal 
character was first established in Europe. But it was not for a 
considerable time after, that the botanical characters of the tree 
were ascertained ; and by Linnaeus it was at first supposed to be the 
Pistacia Foliis Pinnatis Deciduiis, while in the second edition of his 
Species Plantarum, it is mentioned as the Bursera Gummifera. In 
1776 and 1776, specimens of the fructification, accompanied by 
botanical descriptions, were sent from Jamaica to Dr. Hope of 
Edinburgh, and Dr. John Fothergill of London ; and the investi- 
gations of these and other botanists, led to the tree being assigned 
to the genus Quassia : J subsequently, a plant of this species was 
* Fig. a. an anther, b. A female flower, c. A male flower, d. The fruit. 
+ This tree seems rather to belong to the class Monoecia, having its male and female 
flowers distinct on the same plant ; it has'however been placed in the class Decandria, 
from those affinities which bring it under the genus Quassia, which last belongs to the 
class Decandria. 
So called after a negro of Surinam, who first oommunieated to Dr. Rolander, a 
Swede, the virtues of the Quassia Excelsa, which he had employed with great success 
in the cure of the malignant fevers of that country. 
